CHITRAL: Prime Minister’s Inspection Team (PMIT) visited three ongoing road projects in Chitral executed by National Highway Authority (NHA) as per the directive of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who had taken a notice of public complaints about the inordinate delay in completion of those schemes.

Headed by Zahir Shah, the team consisted of Safdar Ali and Qaiserur Rehman while the special secretary of planning and development Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fazli Khaliq, also accompanied it. The team inspected the projects of Chitral-Shandur road, Garam Chashma road and Kalash valleys Road to establish the substandard construction and the design faults as complained.

The team held discussions with local elders and civil society activists in Garam Chashma, Booni, Mastuj, Bumburate and Ayun to get their feedback and proposals on the matter to be incorporated in the forthcoming stages of construction of the project to remove the snags.

The road projects had been initiated seven years ago and had already missed their last date of completion while the progress of work on the schemes was reportedly less than 20 per cent while local leaders of public opinion have been in unison to complain about poor quality of work.

Briefly talking to civil society members in Ayun village, Zahir Shah expressed the hope that all the three road projects would be completed within a short span of time strictly as per given specification and quality.

The district president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Advocate Abdul Wali Khan, told local journalists after meeting PMIT that the team had arduously worked to investigate and examine minute details of the complaint they had presented to prime minister.

He thanked PM Shehbaz Sharif for taking prompt action on complaint of a delegation of PML-N, which had called on him in January last and apprised him of the grave situation arising out of the delay in construction of roads in Chitral.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2025